


The Revolution Has Time for Ice Cream

by nausicaa_lives



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ice Cream, Ice Cream Parlors, M/M, Notfic, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 21:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11700543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nausicaa_lives/pseuds/nausicaa_lives
Summary: Enjolras walks into an ice cream shop.(I just wanted Grantaire to have a messy bun with a cute little bow).





	The Revolution Has Time for Ice Cream

**Author's Note:**

> HA please forgive the fact i actually am legitimately terrible at politics.  
> Also, I read this over and realized it probably should've been tagged not-fic. IDK the not-fic-iness waxes and wanes in and out, bc I wrote it hastily on a train and then minimally revised it before posting.  
> I still hope you enjoy it!

It starts because Enjolras is getting ice cream for Combeferre. Really it’s for Eponine, but normally the ice-cream-getting would be Combeferre’s domain. It’s just that Combeferre and Eponine are going kind of crazy at ETA two months from having a baby, and considering all Combeferre’s done for him throughout years of law school Enjolras thinks it’s the least he can do not to add another layer of bags under his friend’s eyes.

He’s still wearing his nice grey suit from work because he may have time to pick up some ice cream but he doesn’t see the use in wasting additional time to change into ice-cream-casual just to go home and change into pajamas. It wouldn’t be something he’d think about if he could just pick up a pint at a grocery store, but his orders were specific. So he goes to buy the ice cream still in his suit, and as he enters the shop he thinks about just how long it’s been since he’s been in an ice cream shop. It hasn’t been terribly long, but it’s been a solid year, and being amongst all the kids, who are being fifteen very loudly, it seems like a while. The little storefront has a striped awning and is playing up the 50s-ice-cream-shop thing with black and white tiled flooring and seats with metal curlicue backs.

So yes, Enjolras comes in in a suit and orders some ridiculous ice cream combination, like peach and chocolate with whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. In fact, all those things together is exactly what he orders, per Eponine’s own orders. He says,

“Yes, could I have a regular with peach and chocolate with whipped cream… and then rainbow sprinkles?” and feels very foolish about it.

He orders this ridiculous combination from an equally ridiculous man who has his long greasy brown hair tied up in a messy bun with a little purple bow on the side of the elastic and three-days-out scruff and ruddy cheeks. The tip of his nose is flushed too, cold from the ice cream probably. On his nametag is drawn a little umbrella waving hello. Or goodbye, you can’t really tell with waves, especially ones given by little doodle-umbrellas. “Grantaire [waving umbrella]” the ice cream scooper is understandably bemused at this straight-faced dressed-for-success (success equaling meetings) man coming in and ordering what a ADHD preteen might, so he smiles a little bit and you know he thinks that Enjolras is just so cute looking all grumpy holding the ice cream, and when he rings him up he’s all “enjoy.”

And actually Enjolras sort of thinks Grantaire is cute. So the next day Enjolras comes back on his break. The very next day! But he has no idea what to do. So he just stands there and then he orders cookie batter and he hopes Grantaire will ring him up but Grantaire, though working that day, is busy with someone else, and Enjolras is not about to tell the girl scooping alongside him that he’d rather wait for the attractive male ice cream scooper to scoop his ice cream (could that be a euphemism?? he wonders), so he just gets rung up with the girl and then he sits down sort of close to the counter and occasionally looks at Grantaire, who is occupied because it’s the end of Summer and there are tons of people coming in. Nothing happens and Enjolras isn’t really surprised, but he does wonder what he was thinking. The ice cream was okay. He doesn’t really understand himself sometimes.

He doesn’t start going there all the time, regularly, right after that. In fact, he doesn’t come back until about three weeks later because of circumstances. Specifically, Eponine calling him up at 7pm on a Friday night and asking nicely for more ice cream, pronto, because she’s cottoned on to his helping out Combeferre and has decided to go right to the source in order to maximize efficiency. This isn’t exactly the same as Enjolras’s original intention to help out Combeferre, but he figures it ends up taking stress off his friend anyway, so it doesn’t matter which one of them asks him really. Enjolras orders another ridiculous thing and what do you know Grantaire is on, and Enjolras thinks he’s having an okay night. Only then some guy makes an off-hand comment that Enjolras, waiting patiently for Eponine’s ice cream, happens to overhear. It’s about immigration, and the guy thinks he’s very smart because he’s suggesting to the girl next to him that if the southern border had more guns recent gangs wouldn’t have formed and talking about how it was the last president’s bad immigration policy that was brought violence and terrorism into American communities. It isn’t really a big deal. Only, because Enjolras spends all day working to defend peoples’ civil rights and most nights despairing about an increasingly un-civil and unjust government, his tolerance for off-hand comments like this is pretty damn low.

He’s supposed to check out, but he can’t help turning around to face the guy. And then he can’t help opening his mouth,

“Well, we can’t f all those immigrants are prosecuted immediately our immigration courts will fall apart, there has been no link from immigration how will that make your life in any way better or America in any way greater.” The guy just rolls his eyes and walks away, laughing an under-wraps-uncomfortable laugh, two kids that Enjolras now realizes are probably his following him out the door. He turns to have Grantaire ring him up.

“Jesus Christ did you come here to get some ice cream or start a riot?”

“He was being very offensive and spreading misinformation.”

“He was with his kids.”

“That’s when it starts!”

“Oh my God, that’s ridiculous what gives you the right-”

“What gives me the right to show his kids they can stand up to their bigoted father?”

“It was absolutely uncalled for,” and okay, maybe there was a little validity there, "you’re all the same, all you change the world people, and all you end up doing is fucking up the general peace and ruining ice cream shops.”

“At least I understand what it takes to have a shot at changing things and am willing to try. Seeing injustice and doing nothing doesn’t make you wise, it just makes you a fool.” Enjolras will be the first to admit this is maybe a bit dramatic, but he stands by it. Things are a bit tense as Grantaire asks him whether or not he wants his receipt (“no thanks”), and then Enjolras leaves.

He comes back the next evening. Grantaire isn’t on, but Enjolras orders an ice cream anyway to cover his tracks. He’s not sure where his tracks are going anyway, or why he’s trying to cover them. He comes back six days later and argues with Grantaire again.

“If you’re going to mutter about proposition 13 could you do it outside?”

“executive order 13672. and it’s getting revoked. fucking ridiculous”

“right. any way, you’re muttering and cursing like an absolute nutter. So if you’re going to do that could you do it outside?”

“but don’t you see how it’s proof that he really doesn’t give a fuck and if we sit down we’re letting ourselves get screwed?! I mean climate change, gay rights, trans rights, everyone’s rights, are you so apathetic about everything?”

“do you attempt to debate the ethics of recently issued executive orders with everyone you encounter in the service industry?”

“i just-

“i just want to do my job and go home. So how about you let me charge you for your ice cream.”

“…okay.”

“Hopefully you’ll get brainfreeze and you’ll have to take a break for a few seconds.”

But these exchanges don’t leave a weird stinging feeling like Enjolras had felt before, when he came here and nothing happened. After that he comes in every other night for the next week and Grantaire is on on two of those nights. He keeps them in mind and comes in those nights, plus one other one to cover aforementioned ambiguous tracks.

Because he does have a job, and he has work for that job, and has high standards especially w/re: to himself and his work for that job, Enjolras starts bringing in his laptop on his ice cream excursions, because he cannot afford to get behind just because he is making new choices about where he spends his time three nights a week that he doesn’t really want to think about.

They don’t exchange many more words. Often Enjolras will have trouble not looking at Grantaire over the screen of his laptop, but if he keeps at it for long enough he eventually gets sucked into his work. The first ten-or-so mintues, though. Enjolras thinks maybe it’s just the daily patterns and responsibilities so different from his own that fascinate him. He watches Grantaire scoop, smile, restock, blend smoothies, and take out his phone during slow periods, and it’s all interesting. Sometimes when there’s a long lull with no customers Enjolras tries to think of something to say. Because sometimes after tapping lazily at his phone for a while Grantaire lets his hand swing heavily down to his side, looks up to the ceiling, stretching his neck over his Adam’s apple, and breathes out in a prolonged sigh, and it’s the kind of thing that makes you want to be the one spark his interest, to start talking and stop the feeling of moving through maple syrup. Moving through maple syrup can be nice though, and is very hard to change, so Enjolras never seizes the opportunity like he feels he should.

One night Grantaire is closing up, but Enjolras is so involved in his work that he doesn’t notice for a while. When he finally does notice’s it’s because Grantaire is standing in front of him and drumming his fingers pitter-patter butterfly wing fast on the edge of his table, looking sort of amused and pissed off at the same time. Enjolras wonders how that expression works. Probably has a lot to do with the raised eyebrows and the speed at which the fingers are moving. And Grantaire says,

“You know, people normally go to coffee shops if they have stuff to do. We don’t even have wifi you can use here.” Enjolras looks back at his computer and says,

“I know.” Then he keeps typing because he needs to finish his sentence before he is distracted beyond hope, and because he is an ass and a little bit of an idiot. He finishes the sentence, then wants to just finish up the argument while he’s at in and got everything at the front of his mind, and... He vaguely notices as Grantaire stands there silently for a second, kind of openly passive aggressive, waiting. And then when it becomes apparent Enjolras is not responding in any kind of hurry, he says,

“so…” and all of a sudden Enjolras realizes that he is an ass and an idiot, and closes his computer to pack up and feels himself blushing, looking back up at Grantaire saying,

“sorry, sorry, you're trying to close up, I didn’t mean to…” and trailing off. He gets a little lost in Grantaire’s eyes, and mid-sliding his laptop into his bag he just stands there for a few seconds that feel long. Grantaire's eyes are blue- regular around the edges and middle and then really pale flecking out from the center. It doesn't take long to notice all the little things about them- whatever people say, eyes are eyes and they're not endlessly complicated. Just colors. But even though he's finished processing the colors and the patterns, he's still looking into into them, because it feels natural and like they're what he should be looking at, and he sort of feels like he’s-they’re- having a moment. It sounds cliché but Enjolras’s eyes don’t feel tired like they did a minute ago, they seem alert, focused, and his focus is meeting Grantaire’s lazy burning gaze and

But then Grantaire is like,

“What.”

The word is sort of flat, a question without the intonation of a question, the question specifically being what the fuck is up with you can you leave now and the moment that probably wasn’t there in the first place is broken, and Enjolras is even more embarrassed and fuck he’s blushing even more. He says,

“sorry, I’m very tired,” and grabs his stuff, chucks his ice cream cup in the trash even though he isn’t the type of person that throws things into trash bins, ever, and walks out the door into the night, which is warm and draws his attention keenly to the hotness of his cheeks. It’s like taking a bath after sunburn, and he feels like the air and his face are fluidly exchanging high-temperature energy and breathes in and then out, deep.

Enjolras has excellent control of both his actions and his thoughts and he does not go back or think about Grantaire for two weeks.

After that he breaks. He thinks about if Eponine had another craving and made him go get more ice cream, how it would be a simple fact, he’d have to do it. Then he realizes no one will really know the difference whether she makes him go in the name of getting her ice cream or not. Grantaire won’t know if Eponine in all honesty is having another craving, so Enjolras resolves to pretend she is, even though Grantaire has no idea who Eponine even is and doesn’t know that that’s why he started coming anyway. Enjolras knows this is stupid but doesn't let himself think about it that much, he just goes back on Thursday night and orders peach and chocolate and whipped cream and sprinkles. He orders it to go, but then he doesn’t want to go. Summer is ending- it’s getting cooler and it’s late and the shop is empty save for Grantaire wiping down counters and humming something Enjolras recognizes but can’t name. So Enjolras sits down and, for lack of anything better or more casual to do, starts eating the bizarre desert as if it’s something he has ordered for himself twice before and something he does not find disgusting.

It’s not entirely awful, only then the peach and chocolate start melting and mixing together and it really is. He sits and eats it anyway while Grantaire rinses an ice cream scooper until it’s clean and then turns the water off and goes about organizing cups or something. The quiet is loud and Enjolras has the sort of feeling where in a movie you would hear nothing but a loud clock ticking, but there’s no ticking clock.

Enjolras imagines a clock ticking, a full ticking noise that actually sounds a little like the word “clock” itself. “Clock. Clock. Clock,” he ticks in his mind. Also in his mind he draws a half circle on the wall. He makes it into a crescent moon. Slowly he shades it in with little imaginary lines going up and down.

He shakes his head and the etch-a-sketch moon is erased. He stops the clicking. Grantaire, all of a sudden, is by his side, leaning on the nearest table.

Grantaire asks, “do you really enjoy that stuff?” And Enjolras’s mouth is full and he feels kind of sick. He makes himself calmly swallow and then says,

“no,” even though he knows the question is rhetorical it won’t make sense. He cares, but still says it, because he’s tired. Whipped cream shouldn’t come on ice cream at all, that’s just weird.

“Okay…” Grantaire pauses, then, “Do you want to ask me out to coffee?”

“What?”

“It just sort of seems like you want to invite me out to coffee. But you don’t know how?”

“If I wanted to invite someone to coffee, I’m certain I have the requisite knowledge to be able to do that,” Enjolras retorts, why he doesn’t know.

“So why don’t you?” The smiling, mocking dare makes Enjolras edgy, feeling like something in his chest is stretching and ready to snap. He wants to fight. He wants to get coffee.

“Maybe I don’t want to.” Enjolras also has no idea why he says this. Grantaire just gives him another smile, dark and tired. He shrugs and walks away. He’s wearing a warm orange T-shirt that’s not very loose or very tight. It just fits him, and Enjolras can’t think of a reason for why someone would stare at Grantaire’s back in a shirt that is neither endearingly big nor tantalizingly tight but just about the right size, so he makes himself stop. He said he didn’t want to, anyway. People who don’t want don’t look at other people as they walk away. Enjolras turns back to the wall.

He stares at the wall kind of thinking about nothing until Grantaire says,

“I’m locking up, you can’t stay here,” and he gets up to go. He leaves through the door with a soft ‘ding’ a few steps before Grantaire, and when he gets out into the September air he stops and looks at Grantaire’s back, close because Enjolras stopped pretty much right after going through the door, as Grantaire maneuvers keys on a key ring to lock up the shop. Grantaire is wearing a dark green hoodie with a couple of little stains on the sleeve edges now. Enjolras wonders what it would be like to have a quote unquote moment where they are both looking into each other’s eyes and are on the same page about it and its significance and how it feels.

“Wait,” he says, even though it’s hard, forcing the words through a too-small opening in his throat and out the too-large cavern of his mouth into the open ocean of soft breathing sounds in the evening. Grantaire finishes turning a key in a lock, tugs it out, and turns around. His face doesn’t give anything away. “I actually… do. Want to ask you out to coffee.”

Grantaire’s eyes focus. His mouth twitches up. “Okay. I think we should kiss now though.”

It’s not as though Enjolras didn’t know where all of this was going, what eating that disgusting ice cream meant, but maybe some part of him didn’t because he’s lost his breathe. He finds enough to respond. He breathes in.

“Okay.” He breathes out. And they kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> If you see any mistakes or have any thoughts on how this could be improved or feedback in general, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks for reading!!!


End file.
